21 Dec 2009 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
Trevor Phillips, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission has said the BBC may be sanctioned if comments made by the public on its website do not comply with Labour’s new anti-discrimination laws. The move follows public criticism pver the BBC hosting an online debate on its news website asking whether gays should be executed in relation to a proposed anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda. Mark Stephens, a media lawyer who has been leading a commonwealth campaign against a proposed law in Uganda said: “ We must protect freedom of speech whether it is offensive or not. The alternative is to drive the debate underground.” Read more here
17 Dec 2009 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
The BBC has come under fire for pulling sections of the Sergei Diaghilev ballet from its Christmas television schedule after discovering it featured a deformed Pope who rapes nuns. BBC4 was due to show Eternal Damnation to Sancho and Sanchez in a pre-watershed slot over Christmas. The shows producer Javier de Frutos has hit back saying he believes the decision is “silly as well as dangerous”. Composer Thomas Adès added: “To pull it from the programme is a shocking, terrible mistake, and shows a disgraceful, pathetic and worrying loss of nerve on the part of the BBC.” Read more here
17 Dec 2009 | News and features, United Kingdom
Index on Censorship and English PEN today have expressed dismay that the BBC has conceded the libel action brought by toxic waste shippers Trafigura in the High Court. We believe this is a case of such high public interest that it was incumbent upon a public sector broadcaster like the BBC to have held their ground in order to test in a Court of law the truth of the BBC’s report or determine whether a vindication of Trafigura was deserved.
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17 Dec 2009 | Uncategorized
BBC Press statement
The BBC has played a leading role in bringing to the public’s attention the actions of Trafigura in the illegal dumping of 500 tons of hazardous waste in Abidjan in 2006. The dumping caused a public health emergency with tens of thousands of people seeking treatment.
Last month, Trafigura agreed to pay victims of the waste around £30 million in compensation, having previously paid compensation of over £100 million to the Ivory Coast government.Trafigura brought libel proceedings against the BBC over one aspect of its reporting: claims that the waste had caused deaths, miscarriages and serious long term health effects. An official Ivory Coast Government report into the incident had stated that people had died because of the waste and a recent United Nations report also found that there was strong prima facie evidence linking the waste to a number of deaths.
Last month Trafigura agreed to pay victims of the waste around £30 million in compensation for sickness suffered. However, the experts in that case were not able to establish a link between the waste and serious long term consequences including deaths. In light of this, the BBC acknowledges that the evidence does not establish that Trafigura’s slops caused deaths, miscarriages or serious or long term injuries. Accordingly, the BBC has withdrawn those allegations and has agreed to broadcast an appropriate apology on Newsnight. The BBC will pay £25,000 to a charity of Trafigura’s choice.
